This invention relates to apparatus for use in installing a sleeve-shaped hand grip onto the handle portion of a manual implement such as a baseball or softball bat or the like. More particularly, this invention relates to a relatively lightweight and inexpensive bat grip installation device for quickly and easily mounting a resilient sleeve-shaped hand grip over the knob end of a bat to a position about the bat handle portion.
A variety of manual implements such as baseball and softball bats, sports racquets, tools, and the like, are commonly provided with a so-called hand grip installed about a handle portion of the implement to enhance comfortable and secure grasping of the implement during use. With many such implements, the hand grip takes the form of a resilient or elastomeric material formed generally into the shape of a cylindrical sleeve having a size to fit snugly and substantially without slippage about the handle portion of the implement. When grasped by the user, the resilient grip provides a comfortable, slightly cushioned structure which will not readily slip within the user's hand irrespective of the presence of perspiration or dirt on the grip.
Sleeve-shaped resilient hand grips have in recent years become widely used with baseball and softball bats, particularly with bats constructed from aluminum. However, the handle portion of a bat is typically substantially smaller in diameter than either the barrel portion or the knob end of the bat. Accordingly, aluminum bats are normally manufactured initially without a knob end to permit sliding of the sleeve-shaped grip onto the bat handle portion, after which the knob end is welded or otherwise attached to the handle portion. Once the bat knob end is installed, nondestructive removal of the hand grip over the diametrically larger knob end or the barrel portion of the bat is virtually impossible.
One major problem encountered with aluminum bats and other implements provided with a sleeve-shaped resilient hand grip is that the grip will normally wear out long before the implement. When the hand grip wears out, installation of a new replacement grip can be an extremely difficult and sometimes impossible task. For example, with aluminum baseball or softball bats, it is possible to cut and remove the worn grip from the bat, but sliding installation of a replacement grip over the bat knob end or barrel portion generally cannot be accomplished by the average consumer, since such installation normally requires the bat knob end to be severed from the handle portion, followed by rewelding of the knob end after the grip is installed. As a result, when the hand grip wears out, bat users are commonly faced with the undesirable choices of discarding the bat, continuing bat use without a hand grip, or using a less satisfactory grip, such as a tape wrap or the like.
In addition, the popularity of resilient sleeve hand grips with metal baseball and softball bats has rendered it desirable to produce conventional wooden bats with a similar soft and resilient hand grip. However, the knob end of a wooden bat is formed integrally with the remainder of the bat and thus cannot be removed or later reattached to permit easy mounting of a resilient sleeve hand grip. As a result, wooden bats have not been available with soft resilient sleeve hand grips.
Accordingly, there has existed a significant need for a relatively simple and inexpensive apparatus and method for use in quickly and easily installing a sleeve-shaped resilient hand grip onto the handle portion of a manual implement particularly such as a baseball or softball bat, wherein the hand grip can be moved over the relatively large knob end of the bat for snug placement about a comparatively smaller handle portion. The present invention fulfills this need and provides further related advantages.